Yeah, well, it had to happen, right? Microsoft have pulled the plug on their PlaysForSure music service.

Basically this means that anyone who bought music from the Microsoft PlaysForSure store will no longer be able to play this music. For sure.

Microsoft are turning off the servers that control the DRM — Digital Rights Management (more like Digital Restrictions Management) — associated with this music. Therefore, any players capable of playing the music content will no longer be able to verify that you have in fact purchased the music, and thus will refuse to play it.

Pretty neat, huh? Not.

2 comments

Well, it’s out.

Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails, having freed himself from corporate stupidity has released a 36-track instrumental album in the form of four nine-track EPs. There are many purchase options; many more than would accompany a typical record label release.

The album was released without any prior advertisement; and in mere hours after its release, the incredible thing is that, of the 2500 $300 deluxe special editions made available, there are now no longer any left to buy. It’s funny that. People will pay good money for music, without even having heard it, when they can see value for money. Yet, the record companies don’t seem to understand this. Hmm.

I personally tried the (sans-DRM) free download; immediately fell in love with the songs, and bought the $10 2CD set. Even after paying for shipping direct from the US, the total cost ended up just shy of $26; about $10 cheaper than I would’ve had to pay had I purchased this from a shop somewhere nearby and as a bonus, it’ll be delivered direct to my door. Typically bricks and mortar stores charge through the nose ($50 for a 2CD set is not unheard of) for ‘obscure’ foreign music. Of course, Trent knows this, having spoken-out at a show here in Australia in late 2007.

Fuck the RIAA. Fuck the labels. I want to see more bands getting onto their own thing and doing what Trent Reznor has done here. It’s a beaut idea that I, and many others worldwide no doubt, will dutifully embrace.

No comments

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Enter your password to view comments

There’s an excellent article titled DRM, Vista and your rights doing the rounds lately that I think everyone should have a read of. It nicely summarizes most of the problems facing the regular people, you and I, when it comes to DRM and big corporation’s plans for personal computing in the future.

Frankly, I think they can go and get fucked, but you should read the above article, which is written in a more user-friendly language. ^_^

1 comment

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Enter your password to view comments